(musical whooshing)…- OK so we're going to test out your basic knowledge of…creating shapes and simple three-dimensional geometric forms…in preparation for wants to follow later on in the course.…This challenge might seem really basic,…but I want to get you sketching as quickly as possible.…I also want you to develop good practices…right from the start.…And some of the simplest approaches or techniques…I'll demonstrate shortly, will serve you well…throughout the course.…I can't say this more emphatically.…You should be sketching throughout the entire course,…learning by doing, rather than only watching.…

Comfort with a skill comes through practice,…and practice makes you better,…and being better makes you want to practice more.…Before we start I just want to clear up some terminology.…The words shape and form are nearly synonymous…if you look them up in the dictionary.…For purposes of clarity, I prefer to think of shape…as something that is two-dimensional.…For example, a simple shape that I can…cut out paper, such as a circle.…

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Released

12/21/2015

Product designs usually end up as complex CAD drawings before going into production. But they often start as sketches. Sketching allows product designers to generate ideas quickly, without committing resources to any single idea. That's why this course teaches sketching rather than drawing—focusing on speed, creativity, and iteration rather than on one precise depiction of a single concept.

Kevin Henry, a product designer and educator responsible for the influential book Drawing for Product Designers, teaches beginning and intermediate students how to visualize ideas for small-scale and mass production with just a pen and paper. He combines explanation, illustration, animation, and hands-on demonstrations of concepts such as sketching basic shapes as well as more complex forms, creating planes, the mechanics and methods of two-point perspective, projection principles, and creating the illusion of shade and casting shadows. The goal is to get students generating ideas, and sketching them as accurately as possible without inhibiting the creative process. At the end of the course, Kevin explains not just how designers sketch products, but also why. When you're done, check out the rest of our product design courses, which expand on advanced methods of sketching and visualization, including prototyping and computer-aided design (CAD).

Topics include:

Exploring the relationship between analog sketching and computer modeling